13 February 2011

I've been saving for this one for long time now, and I must say it was definitely worth it. Truth to be told, at first I've had some other options in mind when it comes to solving my lack of equipment for live performance, namely KP3's younger brother, Kaossilator Pro, but after many reconsiderations and a few budget cuts, I went for this little widely underestimated box.

Kaoss Pad may be quite a popular toy actually, but it seems that the vast majority of users don't go beyond it's most immediate and obvious functions (at least judging by countless YouTube clips I've seen), simply playing around with effects, or in more interesting case, using it to make beatboxing more crazy than it already is (and I mean in a good way). It's not so surprising, considering how relatively poor manual seems to be when it comes to more detailed informations.

Yet, coupled with a separately purchased SD memory card, KP turns into a self-sufficient loop&effect box, capable of delivering enough options for inspirational and varied (albeit still inevitably repetitive by nature) live performance. For example, you get four banks with loops of up to 4 bars of length, which is what everyone knows, but you can also make more variations by simply chopping up that 4 bar loop into 8 equal parts that can be turned on or off, which creates much more room for creativity than simply pressing ABCD pads on and off. It also means that, having this in mind, you can create and load really interesting combination of sounds/rhythm packed into each of those 4 bar loop banks and go crazy with the thing.

Maybe not really a prime example of creativity with Kaoss Pad, but this is the first thing I've done with it, after only several hours of actual use (got it two days ago), and if you listen more or less carefully you can notice it doesn't quite seem like just four loops going on and off. I'm already satisfied with this test and frankly can't wait to try out more.

March 2011 update:

First try at recording video while improvising with Korg Kaoss Pad 3, with a little bit clumsy intro and a few (I hope) minor mistakes here and there. Sounds were prepared in Ableton Live 7, exported as loops and imported onto four sample banks on KP3.

Recorded directly from the Kaoss Pad's LineOuts into E-MU 0404 PCI, no extra sounds added or editing performed, except for the slight compression on the final recording to increase loudness.Sorry for such a poor video quality, my cheap camera isn't quite fond of dim indoor light.